How is it okay that today’s ‘churches’ no longer have the presence of the Lord?
Melody says:
“In 1975…, I walked into a Bible study with Keith … during worship…, and I felt the presence of the Lord. And I thought ‘I don’t know what these people have, but I want it.’ … So it was the presence of the Lord that touched me before I ever heard the gospel. … So worship is an essential part. …
There’s something that the presence of God, and worship, and prayer touches in our spirit….”
James explains what has happened since 1975. God can’t live where people hate one another, raising unholy hands.
I heard a lot about Bob Jones (1930-2014) about 30 years ago. Mike Bickle especially talked about him a lot. This is the first time I’ve really dived in myself, soaking up every word, transcribing many.
Some pastors in Anchorage also smile that much, just like used car salesmen. It’s a persona used to sell an unsanctified version of Christianity.
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Jason Bermas, a not-yet Christian’s view about Joel Osteen — while walking with his dog ‘Karma’:
8:20 “Nobody smiles that much. … That’s a persona. Even really happy people that I do know, people that are into church and God, they don’t smile that much. It’s an impossibility. Whenever somebody’s smiling that much, they’re selling you something you probably don’t need….”
I first me Henry Gruver in about 1990, when friend invited me to watch the Ron Wyatt discoveries video Henry was showing to a small group at Anchorage Christian Center (ACC).
Years later, I was able to participate in a short prayer walk that he led in Anchorage.
The last time I saw him was when he spoke at a hotel in Anchorage.
In the late ’90s, I got his Russian Invasion of America visions videos from The Prophecy Club, as well as Dumitru Duduman’s on the same subject. Russia and China is preparing to successfully carry this out, while our media is almost totally silent.
So worth another watch, Keith at 11 on “I’ve Got A Secret” TV Show. When we met, he always asked me if I noticed his lisp… I tried, but never did. It’s evident here. He must’ve outgrown it, but at first he was very self-conscious about it, with me. He is so cute. So confident. But needed a bit of help answering questions from the celebrity panel. On his way to a life in showbiz, but God had her plans!
Keith Green had a big impact on my life. He was only four years older than me, and actually became a Christian about the same time I did, ’74-75. He died at only age-28. It’s absolutely incredible what he, his wife Melody and their friends were able to in just seven or eight years! Melody says in the film they were in Woodland Hills, a suburb of Los Angeles.
Praise God they were able to attend Ken Gulliksen’s rich, Holy Spirit anointed meetings right away, which was the start of the Vineyard movement. I didn’t find a church I could relate to until 1981, when I moved to Alaska and found Abbott Loop.
I listened to all of Keith’s music, and still have all of their “Last Days Ministries Newsletter” issues.
His legacy was so big, the vision and momentum, that something was seriously lost when he died in 1982. Christianity moved forward for awhile, but then floundered. The Vineyard movement fizzled out in about 1991. [Our church was autocratic, and the founder never did fully repent or reconcile. Anyone who said something was considered anathema. We were like the church of Sardis in Rev. 3:1-6, having a “‘reputation’ for being alive, but….”]
Keith wouldn’t have put up with the world taking over the church like it has. Hardly anyone today seems to have his passion for doing whatever God wants no matter what — “no compromise.”
This story is wonderfully told by Melody, their friends, and the great people who once were Sparrow records, which was later bought out by a secular label. Christian music was wonderful in the ’70s and ’80s! It’s so spiritually dead now. Keith would have never put up with that, and he ended up giving his music away for donations of any amount. He wanted to make sure the world didn’t compromise him through the love of money, and fame too.
I wonder what the world would be like now had Keith not died so early. He showed the impact that one sold-out man for Christ with great friends can do.
Today’s ‘Christian’ radio stations in America like K-LOVE won’t even play even one of his songs. That’s how sad and pathetic ‘Christian’ music has become — deadsville. This needs to radically change. Instead of “no compromise,” their message is “go to sleep;” “Jesus loves you no matter how much you willfully sin and don’t repent or reconcile.” That’s ‘Christian’ music today, and what is preached from most pulpits today too. Churches have almost no holiness, no presence of God, no passion. We have fake churches right now almost everywhere. Keith Green would freak! Imagine how Jesus feels right now with almost everybody doing their own thing, and acting like it’s okay.
Quite a story here! We need to get serious. We need to live no compromised — which is just normal Christianity, the way it’s always supposed to be.
ABOUT THE FILM
This film was apparently released in 2002. This version is the best quality I could find online, and ends at 1:02:25, where it repeats part of it again, strangely. So it really is only an hour long.
Art Mathias, founder of Wellspring Ministries in Anchorage, Alaska tells his scary and wonderful story! I transcribed these quotes:
“Fear is the opposite of faith. If I’m in fear and worry I am not trusting God. So I had to repent for the fear, go back into faith, start believing God’s promises, then the pain levels would come down. As I got rid of my bitterness, as I got rid of my resentments, as I learned how to forgive and really fall into obedience to the scriptures, then my fear went away, my physical body settled down, my immune system healed. Then my physical body healed.”
“Forgiving from our heart is a choice. … I purpose and I choose to forgive from my heart. And the tormentors*…. The only way we can get rid of those heavy, negative emotions….
“We see literally thousands of people healed every year as we teach them how to forgive.”
* The “tormentors” (Mt. 18 KJV) are actually demons. My article, which has changed minds on this key subject:
Host: “Can a born-again Christian lose his or her salvation?
John Piper:
“The answer to that question biblically is a resounding, clear, emphatic, joyful, glorious no. … The life that is imparted in the new birth is precisely eternal life.”
“Perseverance in faith is the evidence that we’ve been made part of Christ. And when that perseverance doesn’t hold, then we were never in.”
“It’s assurance rooted in our confidence in an absolutely sovereign, covenant keeping God….”
This is erroneous because God sovereignly states His covenants are conditional. The new covenant is conditional upon us abiding in Christ, which dozens of New Testament scriptures say. See:
I met Henry three times when he was in Anchorage in the ’90s. My jaw dropped when he showed a few of us the amazing Ron Wyatt Discoveries video at ACC. Later, I saw him when he spoke in a nearby hotel, having had a bad experience in the local churches. We also did a group prayer walk.
Besides being known for prayer walking cities, he had an important series of dreams/visions of Russia and China invading the USA.
Related:
As many of you may have read on The Joseph Plan website Henry Gruver has been a friend and teacher of mine for many years. I have shared and learned a lot from Henry. Over the last month Henry has been deathly ill. He got sick while ministering in Toronto, Canada. The doctor said when Henry was admitted to the Toronto hospital that was within 1/2 hour of death.
Key points:
2:00 The bargain he made
3:50 Transformed after going to the crossroads
8:00 “Those early songs were like almost magically written.”
11:00 “I never said ‘I’m born-again.'”
14:20 “Bob Dylan was right about this: you’re either going to serve the Devil or serve the Lord.”
The Scofield Bible—The Book That Made Zionists of America’s Evangelical Christians
By Maidhc Ó Cathail
“For a nation to commit the sin of anti-Semitism brings inevitable judgement.”
—The New Scofield Study Bible
Since it was first published in 1909, the Scofield Reference Bible has made uncompromising Zionists out of tens of millions of Americans. When John Hagee, the founder of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), said that “50 million evangelical bible-believing Christians unite with five million American Jews standing together on behalf of Israel,” it was the Scofield Bible that he was talking about.
Although the Scofield Reference Bible contains the text of the King James Authorized Version, it is not the traditional Protestant bible but Cyrus I. Scofield’s annotated commentary that is problematic. More than any other factor, it is Scofield’s notes that have induced generations of American evangelicals to believe that God demands their uncritical support for the modern State of Israel.
Jordan doesn’t even believe in the resurrection. However, Christianity isn’t just belief in Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection. It’s abiding in Christ, walking according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh.
“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don’t WALK according to the flesh, but ACCORDING TO THE SPIRIT” (Romans 8:1).
It’s clear by Jordan’s frequent use of profane language alone that he willfully walks according to the flesh, not submitting to the Holy Spirit.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuTKsZrkJpE
Most people are Christians in Name only. They are not following nor living for Jesus. They are not born again, they are just religious and fooling themselves, comparing themselves with themselves and with other fake Christians.
I was also like that but many years ago the Holy Spirit convicted me and opened my eyes to my foolishness. I decided to live for Jesus and to obey Him and immediately I changed. I was in corporate business, in a senior management position, doing very well for myself and the business, but I changed. Very soon I was called in by my boss and he asked me what was wrong with me, I was not the fun guy any more. I was working harder than ever but I did not participate in the parties, bribesand customer entertainment any more.I was told that I had changed too much and my boss demanded that I immediately resign and leave the company premises.
We were faithful, active church members, butI did not fit in with the church any more. I recognized all the falseness and worldliness in the church and when I started talking about it the pastor asked me to leave the church.
If you really follow Jesus and live to please Him, you do not fit in with the world any more. Friends leave you and closest family reject you. You become parsona non grata, unwanted and unacceptable. If you fit into the kingdom of heaven, you fit out of this world.
Not many people followed Jesus. He chose twelve disciples and one of them betrayed Him, with a kiss. To follow Jesus is a lonely road. You will be rejected, persecuted and hated by the sinners, epecially by the false Christians and the religious hypocrites. What they did to Jesus, they will do to you also, if you truly follow Jesus.
If you obey Jesus, repent and be baptized in water, live holy and righteously, He will give His Holy Spirit in you to teach and guide you every step of the way, but you have to stay with Him.
You will be tested and you will be tried. Only those who overcome, stayfaithful to Jesus andendure with Him until the end,will be saved.
Are you a true follower of Jesus or are youa Christian in name only?
One person here has been making fun of Jan, instead of helping the revival happen so wonderful people like Jan will be healed, and many will get right with Jesus and each other.
Related:
Jim Caviezel surprised #sls18 attendees, encouraging them to be warriors animated by faith. Caviezel will soon be starring in the upcoming movie “Paul, Apostle of Christ.”
Billy Graham has died. He is being remembered as a friend and confessor to presidents, one who gave them guidance and moral fortification. But just as much, Graham was a willing tool of politicians who used him and his supposed pipeline to divine authority to win over the electorate. The role of “spiritual leaders” in cynically playing the public is both important and largely ignored.
Something happened to Billy. His preaching seemed solid in the ’50s, but then he somehow sold out to push the ecumenical movement and the false doctrine of once-saved-always-saved (OSAS), which has produced many ‘Christians’ who do not follow Christ.
Billy turned Christianity into saying a one-time prayer, instead of a lifetime of following and obeying the Holy Spirit, where we walk in “no condemnation,” and have faith to enter when we see Jesus face to Face.
Billy was loved by all, including many corrupt politicians, which is what Jesus warned about: “Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets” (Luke 6:26). Billy even covered for Bill Clinton’s womanizing, laughing as he said it. Even Bill Clinton was comfortable around Billy Graham, who made the road to heaven wide, instead of teaching Jesus’ narrow way.
